June 10, 2022 GMT https://apnews.com/article/abortion-politics-health-caribbean-religion-8dcebe19ea1d3f20ef288463f4392da4 SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) – Teodora del Carmen Vásquez was nine months pregnant and was working in a school cafeteria when she felt severe pain in her back, like the cracking of a hammer. He called 911 seven times before fainting in a bath in a pool of blood. The nightmare that followed is common in El Salvador, a heavily catholic country where abortion is prohibited under any circumstances and even women suffering from miscarriages and stillbirths are sometimes accused of killing their babies and sentenced to years or even decades in prison. By the time Vásquez regained consciousness, she had lost her near-perfect fetus. Instead of an ambulance, police led her to the bed of a pick-up truck in heavy rain at a police station. He was arrested there on suspicion of violating the El Salvador abortion law, one of the strictest in the world. Fearing that she might die, authorities rushed her to the hospital, where they locked her with her left foot in a garage. She was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter. “This is the reality we have lived through and I am not alone,” said Vasquez, who has spent more than 10 years building on what he has always said was stillborn. “Every woman who arrives in prison accused of an abortion is considered the worst, heartless being.” “Once we get pregnant, we become incubators,” said Vásquez, who was released in 2018 after her sentence was commuted. “We are losing our rights because the only possibility we have for life is to take care of the product within us. “It’s violence against us.” Abortion rights activists say the law has led to widespread human rights abuses against Salvador women and should serve as a warning story for the United States, where more than 20 states are expected to ban abortions if the abortion Court overturns 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision in the coming weeks. Some states may have exemptions for cases such as rape or incest, but others may have no exceptions other than threatening the life of a pregnant woman. This would mean that some rape victims may be forced to terminate the unwanted pregnancy and maternity emergencies could be mistaken for deliberate abortions, according to Catalina Martínez Coral, director of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at . El Salvador has one of the strictest abortion laws in the world, which prohibits the procedure in any case. Activists and previously imprisoned women from Salvador warn of what could happen in the US if Roe is overthrown against Wade. (June 10) “These states will experience situations similar to those experienced by women in El Salvador,” said Martínez Coral. Some anti-abortion leaders in the United States say they oppose the persecution of women who have abortions, but others believe otherwise. Louisiana lawmakers unsuccessfully passed a bill this year that would allow such prosecutions, for example, and Tom Askol, a leading candidate to become the next president of the Southern Baptist Assembly, is in favor of calling the process a homicide.

Women used to seek life-threatening abortions, severe life-threatening fetal malformations or rape in El Salvador, a country of 6.5 million people located between Guatemala and Honduras along the Euphrates coast. Of America. But that ended in the late 1990s with a law backed by anti-abortion activists, conservative lawmakers and the Catholic Church, followed by a constitutional amendment that defines life as the beginning of conception. Today it is one of four countries in the Western Hemisphere with total bans – but stands out for its aggressive persecution. While abortion carries a prison sentence of two to eight years, dozens of women, like Vásquez, have been convicted of aggravated murder, punishable by up to 30 years behind bars. In all, El Salvador has ousted at least 181 women in emergency maternity wards over the past two decades, according to the Citizens’ Group on Decriminalization of Abortion, which has been working to secure the release of such women since 2009. At least 65 women prisoners have been released. with the help of the organization and its allies. “Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. “Here, this is being punished,” said Morena Herrera, director of the nonprofit. El Salvador expects doctors and nurses to report suspected miscarriages under threat of prosecution, so women who show up in hospitals after miscarriages or failed miscarriages are sometimes handed over for investigation. Prosecution and punishment are overwhelming for poor, young women who do not have adequate access to medical care and cannot afford to travel abroad for abortion or pay for good legal protection if they break the law. They are sometimes raped in a country with a high incidence of this crime. One such woman, Imelda, was repeatedly raped between the ages of 8 and 18 by her mother’s partner and became pregnant by him. In 2017, she unexpectedly gave birth to a baby in a toilet and then lost consciousness. The child survived, but Imelda was charged with attempted murder due to the circumstances of the birth. She was released from prison in 2018 after a court ruled that she had not tried to kill her baby. Imelda firmly believes that a woman should not be forced to carry a fetus that has been conceived by rape. Since her release, she has been studying to become a nurse and hopes to set an example for doctors by treating patients in similar situations better than she was. “What young girl would want to be a mother?” “They are innocent,” said Imelda. “What they really want is to play, to study. “I always wanted to study, not to become a mother.” The Associated Press generally does not identify individuals who say they have been sexually assaulted. The AP recognizes Imelda only by its first name. Another woman, Karen, was 21 years old and pregnant when she fainted alone at her grandmother’s house. She woke up handcuffed in a hospital wardrobe and lost her pregnancy. A police interrogation led to an aggravated conviction for homicide in 2015 and a 30-year prison sentence. “I was told I was a murderer and that I would pay for what I had done,” he said, “that I will rot in prison.” In prison, other inmates told Karen that she did not deserve to live. She spent seven years in prison, drawing strength from her son and believing in her innocence, and was released in December. Like some other women interviewed by the AP, Karen shared her story and agreed to be photographed on condition that her full name not be revealed due to privacy concerns, possible retaliation and social stigma for abortion. Today, Karen is trying to make up for lost time by playing football with her 14-year-old son and cooking his favorite meals, fried beans and fried plane trees. She maintains her universal faith, but has been disappointed by some of the church’s positions, including her strong opposition to abortion. “If it had been in their hands, we should not have been released,” said Karen. “We still have to pay a penalty for a crime we committed, according to society and the church.”

The Catholic Church and the growing number of evangelical churches have a huge influence in the overwhelming Christian country, where some lawmakers cited the Bible last year as they voted in favor of banning abortions. In his office at the El Salvador Congress, lawmaker Guillermo Gallegos retains what he calls his altar – a wooden table with an open Bible. pictures of Jesus he took on a trip to Russia. a plastic bottle filled with water blessed by Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican. a statue of the Virgin. and a silver of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. In an interview, Gallegos said allowing abortion would erode the deep-rooted beliefs of the vast majority in El Salvador. “There is no valid reason why abortion can be decriminalized in our country,” Gallegos said. “There are strong movements in the country in favor of abortion for some reasons, but fortunately this has not been able to thrive here in parliament, where the decision should have been made.” “Approving abortion, then, would be contrary to our faith,” he added. The Vatican has long opposed abortion, and that has not changed since Francis. The pope has repeatedly denounced it as evidence of “discarded culture” and in 2019 asked at a conference sponsored by the Catholicos, “Is it legal to hire a killer to solve a problem?” After celebrating the Liturgy one morning in the parish of St. Francis of Assisi in the capital of Salvador, San Salvador, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez praised Francisco’s views and reiterated his call for abortion as b. “We live in a culture of death,” the cardinal told the AP, adding that “it leads to total destruction.” Anti-abortion activists say the women who shared their stories killed their babies and that their arguments are being driven by non-profit abortion rights groups in a bid to loosen the law. Local anti-abortion groups did not respond to interview requests or refused to speak to the AP. El Salvador’s health minister declined to comment through a presidential spokesman, who also said no other government officials would be available for interviews.

With Roe vs. Wade in jeopardy in the United States, Latin American abortion rights activists who once saw their northern neighbor as a role model have turned their attention elsewhere to countries such as Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. restrictions in recent years have eased restrictions on women’s movements pushing the issue in the courts. The Center for Reproductive Rights was one of the many organizations that exercised judicial …